The key ingredient to any Bond flick is the quasi-plausible globe-trotting plots where on more than one occasion you are asked to suspend your disbelief. This is particularly true for Die Another Day where reality assuredly takes a back seat–almost too much. The action starts in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. Bond (Pierce Brosnan) is on an undercover mission to stop a war-loving North Korean colonel–but is found out. Cut to a high-speed hovercraft chase (is there anything James can’t drive?) where Bond seemingly dispatches the colonel but ends up being captured and tortured. Agent 007 gets out and soon finds himself on a quest to find the person who set him up. All points–including some rare diamonds and a tie to genetic engineering (Note: This is one of the many moments where you say “Oh come on!”)–lead to millionaire Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens) and his ruthless right-hand man Zao (Rick Yune). They eventually show him firsthand an ultimate high-tech global-warming device capable of starting WWIII if used properly. But let’s not forget about the Bond girls. James hooks up with Jinx (Halle Berry) a beautiful but deadly American agent and Miranda Frost (Rosamund Pike) Graves’ personal assistant who is much more than just someone’s flunky. It all culminates to an explosive showdown.
The dashing and good-looking Brosnan embodies the true spirit of the suave British super agent–except this time around he is finally showing a little wear and tear. Don’t get me wrong Brosnan still looks great doing the stunts and wooing the women but he’s getting a little long in the tooth for all this spy stuff–and it slightly detracts from the movie. Interestingly Die Another Day is one of the first times you get to see Bond tortured and beaten. It is perhaps one of the more real moments Brosnan has ever had as Bond and the 49-year-old actor handles the chores well. But it may be time for him to hang it up and move on (and the actor admits this). Berry plays the buff Jinx with relish. This Oscar-winning beauty takes your breath away from the first time you see her coming out of the water Ursula Andress-style but she manages to kick some major butt throughout the rest of the movie and loves every minute of it. Pike as Miranda Frost is another rough and tumble beauty who can spar with the best of them. It’s nice to see the Bond girls getting tougher and tougher. The villains are adequately over-the-top. Stephens (who is British thesp Maggie Smith‘s real-life son) as Gustav Graves has a truly menacing snarl which he uses to full advantage while Yune (The Fast and the Furious) as sidekick Zao makes Goldfinger‘s Oddjob look like a pussycat. Judi Dench as M and John Cleese as Q always add a nice element.
Along with grandiose plots the other key factor to a good Bond movie are the action sequences. They must be fast-paced highly implausible but nevertheless spectacular. Die Another Day doesn’t disappoint. Even the opening credits have a unique feel. As Bond is being tortured women dance seductively around him while Madonna belts out the theme song–it’s well done. New Zealand director Lee Tamahori (Along Came a Spider) starts the film off with a pretty exciting surfing sequence (is there anything Bond can’t do?) and continues the trend with the hovercraft chase scene.The best part of the movie however takes place in Graves’s lair an ice palace in Iceland where Bond has to do some fancy driving on ice to escape the bad guys and rescue the damsel in distress. The entire chain of events looks amazing (save a scene with Bond parachute-surfing around–icebergs? Come on!) Day also pays homage to several early Bond films including Dr. No Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever. It’s the lag time between the action where the film falters. There is far too much pontificating in this Bond film. Better to just keep to the business at hand. Only the last action sequence seems too far off-base from reality even for a Bond movie. I say that intellectually but it still keeps you on the edge of your seat watching. You can’t help it.
